Lauren's Life Loaf (Gluten free, Dairy free, Sugar free)

Eating gluten free one of the biggest losses is nice bread. I have discovered bearable GF bread in the supermarket, which doesn't break the bank, but it's hardly a joy to eat. And not particularly good for you - full of highly processed starches etc. It does the job when an oat cake won't cut it, but that's it. It's a stop gap. A carby filler of misery.

And then my step-mother, Lauren, introduced me to THIS bread.

This has flavour and nutrition by the bucket load. And no artificial or processed anything. Just yummy goodness. She discovered it at My New Roots...

No mess, no kneading, no fretting and fast to do - very crunchy and smooth and rich


quantity for normal loaf tin:
1 cup/ 135grms sunflower seeds
1/2 cup/90 grams whole flax seeds
1/2 cup/65 grms hazelnuts halved
1.5 cups/145 grms rolled oats (like Flahavans)
2 tablespoon chia seeds
4 tablespoons psyllium seed husks (3 tablespoons if using powder)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon maple syrup
3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1.5 cups/ 350ml water


Line a loaf tin with parchment paper.
Combine all the dry ingredients mixing thoroughly.
Whisk the maple syrup, oil and water together then add to the dry ingredients mixing well until everything is completely soaked and the dough becomes very thick (if the dough is too thick to stir add a teaspoon or so of cold water until the dough is manageable).

Flop the dough into the prepared tin smoothing out the top with the back of a spoon.
Leave to sit on the countertop for at least 2 hours, all day or all night is better (sometimes I just do it for 5 minutes and it’s still good!). To ensure the dough is ready it should retain its shape when you lift the parchment.

Preheat oven to 175*C/350*F - or middle of aga - and even when on low heat

Place the loaf tin in the middle of the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove the bread from the loaf pan and place it upside down directly on the greaseproof paper on the oven rack. Bake for another 30-40 minutes. Bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Store in a container for up to 5 days.
Can freeze - slice before freezing so easier to take out a slice to toast.

No-bake PMS bars

So at a certain time of the month, the need for chocolate becomes as strong as our need for extra sleep. We women are wired for it.

Image credit: www.marksdailyapple.com

But if we're not careful we can load up on too much sugar and feel really crappy. Also concentration can be tougher premenstrually and we can be clumsier.

I am currently not eating wheat and sugar, but I wanted a snack to get me through the tunnel of PMS - and this one takes the biscuit! A recipe that needs no chopping or baking, and minimal work, which has no added sugar, but is nutrient rich with nuts, seeds and oats, giving you the nutritional boost you need premenstrually, without the sugar rush. And most importantly a rich, dark, deep hit of chocolate.

The only part of the recipe which requires a little vigilance is the first, toasting the nuts, seeds and oats. But it only takes about 10 minutes. So have a cup of tea and sit in stillness in front of the cooker. Or set a timer!

 Ingredients
2 cups rolled oats, not the powdery porridge ones
1 cup almonds (with skins on)
3/4 cup pecans
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
200 grams 70- 75% dark chocolate
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 packed cup pitted dates

 Pre heat the oven to 170C (fan), about 350F.

Pour the oats onto one large baking tray, and the nuts and seeds onto the other. Pop them into the hot oven. Check after 6 minutes. If the nuts smell toasty and are a little darker, take them out. Toss the oats so the ones on bottom are now on top, and pop into the oven for another 5 mins. If about 1/4 are starting to turn golden brown then you can take them out, if not, toss again and put in for another couple of minutes.

Pour the nuts,seeds, oats and salt into a steel bladed food processor and grind until gritty.

Then add the pitted dates, vanilla and chocolate (broken roughly into pieces)for another minute until it is all brown and has come together, stop once or twice to push any stray oats down into the chocolatey mush.

Pour into an 8 inch square brownie tin which is lined with baking parchment. Cut into 16 squares and chill in the fridge for an hour or so before eating.

Thanks to http://www.brighteyedbaker.com for the original recipe inspiration which I have adapted.

Thick and chewy American choc chip cookies

These are the real deal. Thick and satisfying. Crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. And quick and easy to bake - they don't need chilling before they are baked. They are my new perfect!

I added 80g toasted chopped walnuts to the child-free half of the batch. Toasted hazelnuts or pecans would be yummy too.

These are adapted from Nigella Lawson's Kitchen. They are lower in sugar, and chocolate than hers, and use choc chunks rather than chips. And salt... Must have salt!

150g melted butter, cooled slightly
120g soft brown sugar
80g white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 fridge cold egg and 1fridge cold egg yolk
300g plain white flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
200g bar milk chocolate, chopped into chunks

Makes 24 large cookies
Preheat fan oven 160C

Pop eggs in the freezer if you don't normally keep them in the fridge.

Whilst the butter is melting (I put it in a small bowl into the preheating oven, along with the nuts on a baking tray - but keep an eye on both!)  Put the sugars in a large mixing bowl and de lump the light brown sugar by rubbing together with your fingers. Leave the butter to cool for 2-3 minutes. Pour into the bowl with the sugar and whist with an electric whisk. Then add the egg and yolk and vanilla, whisk until smooth.

Add flour, salt and sieve in bicarbonate of soda making sure there are no lumps. Fold in with a spatula. Then fold in chocolate chunks and nuts if using.

Scoop out with  an ice cream scoop onto lined baking sheets. Do NOT flatten these mounds! This should make 2 sheets of 12. Unless you have an oven where they can cook side by side it is better to bake one at a time. They also keep in the fridge uncooked for a few days. Or you can also freeze the uncooked dough, scooped out and frozen on a tray, then transfered into a bag when frozen.

Cook 15 mins. Checking every couple of minutes after 10 mins. It's better for them to be on the under, rather than over done side. Try to restrain yourself to less than 4... especially if you have been nibbling on the dough - these are addictive... you have been warned!

No bake flap jacks

For Sarah

Five minutes start to finish. Plus an hour in the fridge. Sweet, squidgy and reasonably healthy. These met with the women's group stamp of approval!

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups rice crispies
3 - 3 1/2 cups porridge oats, NOT jumbo or rolled oats
1 handful each pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and unblanched almonds

Melt butter, sugar and honey gently in a largish pan, when sugar is dissolved let it come up to boil for 2 mins.

Stir in vanilla. Chop almonds into slivers. Stir in 3 cups of oats, the rice crispies and half the nuts and seeds. If it still seems too syrupy and sticky add more oats.

Turn into a brownie tin lined with baking paper. Press down and sprinkle remaining nuts and seeds over.

Chill in fridge for 1 hour then cut into 16 squares.

Up-cycled Easter Egg Cake

There comes a time when the excitement of Easter eggs has worn off and the children are less interested in them but there are still odds and sods and bits and pieces scattered around looking lonely and unloved. Cue chocolate biscuit cake to breathe yummy new life into these no longer glossy bits of choc.

This makes a big batch, so take it to someone's house, have a party, be self-restrained OR make half quantities!

Apologies for the lack of picture - no excuse except gluttony!

400g chocolate - mix of milk and dark
175g butter
4 tbsp golden syrup (corn syrup)
200g digestive biscuits (graham crackers)
100g nuts (pecan/ brazil or hazelnuts - toasted is best) - roughly chopped or smashed
150g dried cranberries (the sweetened type) or raisins or glace cherries or a mix
100g chopped mixed peel- or mini marshmallows if you hate peel

Break all choc into small pieces and put with the syrup and butter into a pan over simmering water. Mix and DO NOT let the water touch the bowl, DO NOT let it get too hot, keep mixing and remove from heat when about 2/3 melted and continue stirring till all melted.

In a plastic freezer bag put the biscuits (and nuts if wanted) and smash to smithereens with a rolling pin. You want a mix of small chunks and crumbs.

Add the fruit, biscuit and nuts into the choc, mix well and tip out into a brownie tin (about 25cm by 30cm). Flatten down, leave to cool (this takes about 2 hours) and cut into squares. Keeps for about 10 days in a biscuit tin or extra yummy cold from the fridge - though it never lasts that long!

Cake for Breakfast: Popple Cake

This is a breakfast cake! Well, I ate it for breakfast, still warm from the oven. But it's delicious at coffee break or tea time too. I know, I tried it then too!!

What is a breakfast cake? Well it's higher in nutrients, contains fruit and, is lower in butter, and is not iced. It contains all the ingredients people might eat for breakfast: wheat flour, oats, fruit, eggs, buttermilk... but in cake form. It is about as worthy as cake gets. Except it doesn't taste worthy It is moist and spiced, bejewelled with plump cranberries and oh so more-ish.

I made it to use up a large jar of apple puree that I had bought for the baby. But homemade stewed apple would be perfect too, just make sure it's not too sweet.

And the name? Porridge + apple. See I told you it was healthy! It is adapted from Beth Hensperger's lovely Bread for Breakfast, another great American baking resource. So cup measures at the ready!! (I know it looks like quite a list of ingredients, but the method is simplicity itself.)

Hummingbird Cake

For Mary

A variation on the carrot cake them- but with no carrot! This recipe is the Hummingbird Bakery's signature cake, hence the recipe, but they have 3 times the sugar in the icing (it must be terrifyingly sweet). I have also added some brown flour to the mix to add nutrition. In my dear friend Mary's words: "OMG that is like the BEST cake I have ever tasted!" Personally I wouldn't go THAT far... but it does look mighty impressive. Try it and see for yourself.

Secret Brownies

Brownies... the ultimate gooey, gunky chocolate sensation. But definitely NOT good for you.

Well not any more. These secret brownies are super-chocolatey yet light, gooey and cakey...and nutritious. The secret? Tofu! It replaces some of the eggs, sugar and butter. And you would NEVER know it was there! Tofu is a great low fat protein source. As well as containing all sorts of cancer protecting isoflavins and the like. I also find for some reason that they don't give me a nasty sugar high like other brownies.

You'll have to trust  me on this one. I do not do worthy bakery. But I may, in this recipe, just have found a perfect compromise. I ate six today...I'm not sure if they're THAT healthy... ah well!

Florentine Crispies

Dear friends, brace yourselves to reach heaven. Well, that is if you like white chocolate, and if you don't we may need to reassess this friendship thing. You also need to be a little nutty... (if you know what I mean!) And yes you need to like candied peel. Now I know that this seems to disqualify most of my close friends. But their loss. Myself, my husband, sister and step mother sit and gorge on these. There is a reason that I only cook them once or twice a year! that and the ingredients aren't that cheap. But boy are they a good grown up treat. Gorgeous as a snack, or an after dinner snapple.

These are grown up chocolate crispy cakes with a florentine vibe going on. Regular readers know that contains nuts= a health food in my book and it cancels out the less wholesome nature of any other ingredients contained therein!

With credit to Andrew Garrison Shot's divine book Making Fine Chocolates for the original version of this recipe.

Honey Cake

The sort of thing that Pooh Bear would eat, me-thinks! what is great about this one is that you can tell yourself that you can have another slice, because it's SO healthy! It has honey, unrefined nuts and brown flour. Except it doesn't taste worthy at all, it is buttery and with a light crumb and a praline nuttiness. Hidden under the guise of a boring looking, almost burnt crust. This is one that whispers seductively "never judge a book by its cover!" I dare you not to have a second slice, and maybe even a third.

With thanks to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall for the original recipe (in his River Cottage Everyday  [GREAT book]) which of course I have tweaked!